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Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows®
© Copyright 1996-2008 by Barry MacDonnell. All Rights Reserved.

Create a page border with repeating graphic images (clip art, photos, etc.) around the four edges of the page

To create a page border using text, see the TextBord macro in the Library

and also see -

Adding emphasis to text: How to create custom paragraph/page border or fill styles

Here's a way to create unique announcements for the holidays or special occasions. The procedure should take about 10-20 minutes the first time you do it.

Corel Presentations (part of the WordPerfect Office Suite) is required for the following method.

1. Find a suitable graphic image to use as a repeating element in a new page border. I found a copyright-free holiday GIF image consisting of two bells and a holly wreath here.

(Note: I used the left image with the white background; I right-clicked it and used "Save as..." to save 2bells.gif in a convenient folder on my hard drive. For those who just want the completed 2bells.wpg page border image to place in their Borders folder, click here .)

2. Open Corel's Presentations program from your Windows Start menu. When Presentations opens, click on Create New (Presentations Drawing), Create. Then (from the main menu) click File, Page Setup. Select a page Size (e.g., Letter; 8.5" x 11.0"), then click Portrait, then click Minimum Margins (or set them to 0.0" or as small as possible), then OK. A new, blank document of the appropriate size should now be on screen.

3. Click Insert, Graphics, From File. Locate the 2bells.gif image and select it.

N.B.: Unless the Insert File dialog is set to show all file types, you may need to set the File Type as "Compuserve bitmap (*.gif)" in the Insert File dialog so that you can find the 2bells.gif file.

Click Insert, and the image file will be imported into Presentations, into the center of the Presentations screen.

4. Left-click the image to select it (8 drag handles will appear around the image). You can use the drag handles on the image's corners to re-size it.

5. Use Ctrl+C to copy the image to the clipboard. Now press Ctrl+V to paste the image back onto the screen (it will be in the same location as the original); simply drag the copy to the upper left. Repeat the Ctrl+V/drag operation to place 6 images along the top (all the way to the right-hand edge), 6 along the bottom, and 5 along the left and right sides. This creates a (rough) border of 22 images. Once you've done that, it's easy to line them up more precisely along the edges of the page:

6. Click the upper-left image to select it. Hold down the Shift key while you left-click on the next image to the right. Still holding down the Shift key, left-click the next image. Repeat until all 6 images are selected as a group. [I.e., there should be just 8 drag handles around the group of 6 images at the top of the page, indicating the entire group is selected. While everything is still selected, you can expand ("tweak") the group box left- and rightward, if necessary, to stretch the box to the margins.]

Now, on the property bar, click the icon to Space the images evenly (left to right) inside the group; then click on the icon to Align the grouped images (to the top of the group). [In WordPerfect 8 these features are found by clicking the Graphics button on the property bar.] While the entire group of 6 images is still selected, you can left-click it to drag the group upward if needed to position the group along the top edge of the page.

7. Repeat Step 5 with the bottom left image, etc. Then repeat for the left- and right-hand vertical images (you may need to adjust the width of the left and right groups slightly to ensure the graphics in them are the same width as those in the top and bottom groups). This should complete the border.

8. Delete the first "seed" image in the center of the page by selecting it and then pressing the Delete key.

9. Save the file with File, Save (with a .wpg filename extension). Make sure you save it to the folder with other borders, or else copy it there after saving it. (E.g., D:\Corel\WordPerfect Office 2002\Graphics\Borders.) Close Presentations.

10. In WordPerfect, you can either use the graphic as a page border directly, or use Insert, Watermark to insert it as a watermark. For example:

10a. Insert image directly as a page border: Click Format, Page, Border/Fill, and under the Border tab, select the Border type as "Fancy." Select the 2bells.wpg border, then click Apply, OK. Adjust page margins inward.

10b. Insert image as a watermark so that it will appear on all pages: Go to the top of the document. Click Insert, Watermark, Create. Insert, Graphics, From File. Choose the 2bells.wpg image, and click Insert. Drag the upper-left and bottom-right drag handles to re-size the image to maximum size, set the preferred image shading (the default is 25% but you may want 50% or greater) with the button on the property bar, then use File, Close to close the watermark window. Adjust page margins inward.

For those who just want the completed 2bells.wpg border image to place in their Borders folder, click here.